Adherent cells such as macrophages and fibroblasts are called anchorage-dependent cells, since such cells are activated and proliferated only when they adhere to a surface or a substrate. Such cell adhesion is induced by protein families (adherent molecules or proteins) found in extracellular matrices, such as vitronectin and fibronectin. Such cell adhesion causes problems in a variety of fields, including medical fields.
For example, fibroblasts inoculated into a culture medium may adhere to a tissue culture plate by the mediation of an extracellular matrix protein. In a manner similar thereto, bacterial cells may adhere to the inner wall of a urinary catheter, and platelets may adhere to the tip end of an arterial catheter. Also, adherent cells may cover the surfaces of contact lenses by the mediation of a protein. Particularly, occurrence of such cell adhesion in, for example, a medical tool or apparatus may cause serious problems, since the cell adhesion may result not only in contamination, but also in clogging or a reduction in analysis accuracy or sensitivity.
In view of the foregoing, there has been proposed, as a technique for preventing non-specific adhesion of murine fibroblasts to a container, coating of the container with a polymer derived from, for example, 2-methacryloyl phosphorylcholine and methacryloyl hydrazide (Patent Document 1).
Also, there has been known a protein adsorption inhibitor containing, for example, a copolymer of 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine with n-butyl (meth)acrylate, methyl (meth)acrylate, or styrene or the like (Patent Document 2).
In the meantime, when biological tissues are damaged, adhesion may occur between damaged tissues, or between a damaged tissue and the other biological tissue, resulting in various dysfunctions. In connection therewith, there has been known a material which forms a membrane for preventing such adhesion; for example, an adhesion preventing material containing a human-derived natural collagen membrane (Patent Document 3), an adhesion preventing material containing a specific hyaluronic acid compound (Patent Document 4), an adhesion preventing material containing a dry film of a polyion complex formed of a polyanionic substance and a polycationic substance (Patent Document 5).
Further, there has been proposed a technique for forming a layer of a sulfur compound having a hydrophilic end group on the surface of a metal layer of a microchannel (Patent Document 6), which technique is for the purpose of improving the wettability of the microchannel to water, and preventing a chemical from remaining in a micropump, achieving reliable quantitative determination accuracy or detection accuracy. Also, there have been proposed a technique for modifying the inner wall of a microchannel with, for example, a fluororesin (Patent Document 7), and a technique for coating the surface of a microchannel with polyethylene glycol, Eval, Poval, or a polymer having a phosphorylcholine group (Patent Document 8).